Kuskokwim Salmon Management Group Planned For Wednesday (the 3rd) Moved Up To Tomorrow

The KSMWG meeting scheduled for the 3rd of July has been moved up to Tuesday the 2nd to discuss the latest run assessment data for king salmon; the Bethel Test Fish (BTF) numbers are not only the lowest on record, they are in a class of their own.

Here’s how the numbers are shaping up:

In past years the daily count, although rare, has been as high as 50 or more (June 22, 2009), but this year we barely broke the 20 mark. You can see that the last three days counts didn’t even reach 10.

Unless something drastic changes in the near future or the test fishery tool was off for whatever reason this year, we’ll barely meet the lower bound of the newly established lowered escapement goal of 65,000 set for the entire drainage.

One can only hope for good weather the rest of the king run so that the weirs provide accurate counts to judge management decisions by. The only reason we met last year’s escapement was because restrictions were implemented which allowed the kings to get to the spawning grounds.